EPTStupid GRE - Page 2
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AcrossFiveJulys
United States3612 Posts
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illu
Canada2531 Posts
On October 04 2010 04:55 AcrossFiveJulys wrote: yeah this test is retarded. if you are applying to math or engineering programs, though, don't sweat the verbal. I got 580 verbal/760 quant (yes I fucked up the quant) and was accepted to umich masters, georgia tech masters, and brown masters. My friend got 460 verbal / 800 quant and was accepted to stanford's EE phd program. Right now I can hardly do half of the verbal questions correctly. Sometimes I doubt I can even get, say, 460 on verbal. owel, still got a month, I guess... | ||
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Deleted User 3420
24492 Posts
After looking up quibble, though, the answer definitely seems to be B. | ||
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illu
Canada2531 Posts
I am retarded. Sigh. | ||
Cambium
United States16368 Posts
The reading comprehension part is also a bitch. I had three passages, and I didn't get a single technical paper. They were all a mixture of history, social science, racism and feminism. I raged so hard after the test  Edit: One trick I use to do these A:B :: C:D questions is I try to describe A wrt B (or B wrt A), and then see if one of the choices fits directly into that description. But obviously, you have to know enough words to do this =.= | ||
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illu
Canada2531 Posts
On October 04 2010 05:03 Cambium wrote: Do a practice set and see what you get. Unless you read a lot, I think it's pretty hard to get over 600 verbal even if you cram your brains out. A lot of this is based on luck. The reading comprehension part is also a bitch. I had three passages, and I didn't get a single technical paper. They were all a mixture of history, social science, racism and feminism. I raged so hard after the test Ironically I am quite familiar with history, social science, psychology, and .... (I am serious) feminism. For non-academic reasons, I attended three semester worth of Womens' Studies lectures. I know all about those things! O well, I haven't even gotten to the reading part yet, but what you said about "technical" may not help you. I remember reading a "math passage" from an MCAT practice test before; I didn't understand a single bit of it. | ||
Hot_Bid
Braavos36401 Posts
You have time. Do a full practice GRE test every day 5 days a week until your test. If you're confident in the math part, instead of the normal breakdown, do 1 section of math and the rest verbal. I realize this is a lot of time, like 4-5 hours a day, but you can do it. Because if you do, and you do it diligently under "true" test conditions (no breaks, simulate real test as much as possible), you're going to destroy this test at the end of the month. It's just a matter of how hard you can push yourself to do practice tests. If you really care about this, you'll make sacrifices and work. Stop talking or analyzing or figuring out how to do it. Just do the work. Do 20+ full practice tests this month. I guarantee you'll get a good score, or at least much better than you'd expect. | ||
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Myrmidon
United States9452 Posts
On October 04 2010 04:26 Cambium wrote: I think when I took it last year, 800 verbal was 92% percentile and up, and quant 800 was 99%. Just to give you some perspective. Also, if you are taking the computer version, don't fuck up the first few questions (goes for both verbal and quant). If you do, the computer will think you are stupid and give you only easy questions... Don't you mean the other way around? 800 quantitative is usually around 92-93 percentile. Last year I got 800 quantitative (92 percentile I think), 710 verbal (97 percentile I think), and 5.0 writing (83 percentile I think). I crammed the top 200 list of words and saw 3-4 of them on my exam, so I was lucky. I only took two practice exams and am not sure that taking more would have helped me out more. If you're confident in pacing yourself, learning more words, roots, suffixes, prefixes, connotations, etc. is more important than practice exams I think. As an undergrad applying to direct-entry Ph.D programs--or Masters when not available--in EE, I got into Clemson, UCSD, and UIUC with decent financial offers. Got rejected from MIT and Stanford. One friend in CompE also in communications had lower scores and less research experience, and got into Stanford Masters -> Ph.D. Another friend in EE got into Cal Berkeley (actually, every top-10 school in EE he applied to but MIT and Stanford, which was 6/8 of them) on something like 550 Verbal and 760 Quant, all direct-entry Ph.D. where possible. edit: And don't a lot of humanities-area majors get a higher score (not percentile) on quant than verbal? One of my friends who studied sociology who has read a lot of books, previously studied creative writing, and wants to be published one day got like 770 quant, 610 verbal, 5.0 writing. By her own admission, she sucks at calculus 1 and "real" math. My point is that the test makers have no idea wtf they're doing in terms of balancing the test and have no idea what they're measuring. GRE scores are definitely not all that count--and rightfully so--so don't sweat it too much. I also got owned by the cursive...  | ||
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bearbuddy
3442 Posts
I thought the analogy section on Princeton Review was pretty helpful. The part where it's saying how you relate the first two words (characterized by, opposite of, etc...). It's a good practice to get you away from the innate sense of doing analogy by saying A is like B as to C is like D, which doesn't actually eliminate many of the choices. | ||
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paper
13196 Posts
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bearbuddy
3442 Posts
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darkponcho
United States262 Posts
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Xeris
Iran17695 Posts
Does anyone know what kind of average scores top schools for IR require? I.E... would I get into Georgetown with a 1400? A 1500? Etc? I'm trying to get an estimate of what I should be shooting for and how much work I should put in TT! | ||
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benjammin
United States2728 Posts
On October 04 2010 04:19 Thegilaboy wrote: The hardest part of taking the GRE? Rewriting a paragraph in cursive for the form you fill out stating you won't cheat or tell people the questions. Study up on your cursive or just scribble jibberish like I did haha hahahaha THIS. it took me like 20 minutes to write that crap out | ||
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akevin
Canada120 Posts
On October 04 2010 04:19 Thegilaboy wrote: The hardest part of taking the GRE? Rewriting a paragraph in cursive for the form you fill out stating you won't cheat or tell people the questions. Study up on your cursive or just scribble jibberish like I did haha Yup, that cursive writing was a huge pain. I swear 2 people started a few minutes after me, and still finished before me. But anyways, to my knowledge nobody really cares about GRE as long as you don't bomb it. I think I got 790/600/5 and 860 on the subject one as well. I was actually impressed I did so well on the verbal/writing since I don't read much, and didn't study near as much as I wanted. Lol I had a power outtage during the test too. Got in everywhere I applied for Chemistry/Chemical Biology (except Stanford lol), but I really doubt the GRE had any influence. I'm honestly guessing that most of the comittee members didn't have give a second glance to the GRE. | ||
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Archas
United States6531 Posts
On October 04 2010 05:43 benjammin wrote: hahahaha THIS. it took me like 20 minutes to write that crap out Seriously, who the fuck even uses cursive? Why do we even have to learn it? | ||
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Cambium
United States16368 Posts
On October 04 2010 05:23 Myrmidon wrote: Don't you mean the other way around? 800 quantitative is usually around 92-93 percentile. Yep, you are right. I swapped the two around. Seriously, GRE is just an idiot bar. Very rarely (if ever) does your GRE score make or break your application, talking about 1300 (arbitrarily chosen) and up. | ||
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ArvickHero
10387 Posts
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illu
Canada2531 Posts
On October 04 2010 07:23 ArvickHero wrote: Wait, what are the answers to the questions?? I chose a&e.. The answer to the first question is B. | ||
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Slaughter
United States20255 Posts
It is but I only got like a 1200 something and the profs here say that in my field they basically won't look at your app if you have under 1300 for PhD programs. So need to get it up >< | ||
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